Smartmatic wants rival bidder disqualified

MANILA, Philippines — Smartmatic-Total Information Management Corp. has asked the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to blacklist a rival bidder for allegedly giving false information in its bidding documents.

In a 40-page complaint submitted to the Comelec’s bids and awards committee (BAC), Smartmatic wanted Indra Sistemas S.A. to face charges and suspended for a year.

Smartmatic and Indra were the only bidders for a P2.5-billion contract for the government to lease 23,000 optical mark reader (OMR) machines. 

The two bidders were disqualified after BAC found that their financial proposals were “non-responsive” and the committee had set a second bidding this month.

Smartmatic accused of Indra of providing “fabricated documents” and violating provisions in the project’s terms of reference, which require bidders to have “successfully completed at least one contract similar to the project.” 

Smartmatic said while Indra claimed it designed, planned and organized the transmission processing and broadcast of the provisional count of the 2013 parliamentary polls in Argentina, the country’s Provincia de Buenos Aires Junta Electoral said the elections were “not automated.”           

It also refuted a certificate submitted by Indra stating that the system used in the elections in Madrid, Spain was the system it is proposing to use in the Philippines.

Smartmatic said the certificate was not issued by an election authority but by an office under the city’s mayor.